Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.
Humans vs. Zombies
From UMassWiki
Humans vs Zombies (also called Zombies vs Humans, HvZ, Nerds With Nerfs) is a LARP (Live Action Role-Playing Game) which involves a large number of players (sometimes more than 30) and long game time (sometimes taking weeks). The game involves bananas for team identification purposes, Nerf weapons for human defense against zombies, and a website to keep track of the constantly changing teams.
- The official web site for the UMass game is http://www.umasshvz.com (No longer functional)
- The UMass Facebook group is http://umass.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2219162329.
Contents |
[edit] History
Humans vs Zombies was invented in the fall of 2005 at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, by Brad 'Maple' Sappington and Chris '420' Weed. Since its invention, the game has spread to many colleges and universities in North America, including the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell, Northern Illinois University, Wesleyan, Whitman, University of Illinois, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Tennessee Technological University, and UMass. For more information on the game, including "Goucher style" rules, a documentary made about the game, and downloadable source-code for a Humans vs Zombies website, visit the official Humans vs Zombies website at http://www.webfeatsdesign.com/hvz/
[edit] History at UMass
In Spring 2007, Alex Trefonas, (aka 
scooter_libby) suggested starting a game at UMass in the UMass Amherst Livejournal community and began work on a web site that was to be completed for Fall 2007. He also wrote the majority of the first edition of this article. The project languished because it was nothing more than a pointless livejournal post without any relevance to anything.
On August 17, 2007, someone put the UMassWiki Humans vs. Zombies article on StumbleUpon. By August 19, traffic on the site spiked to 10 times its daily average and shortly thereafter this article became the number one Google hit on a search for humans vs. zombies. Within about 10 days, this article had gotten around 50,000 hits making it the most popular page on the wiki.
Noticing the traffic spike, UMassWiki operator GMorehou posted in 
umass_amherst urging students to actually start a game. Suspected Sex Offender Dante Ciliberti, who frequently crashed the pre-existing and successful Capture the Flag games on campus, responded by asking Devin Ashe to start a game. Eventually, Computer Science major, MENSA member, Legion d'Honneur recipient and likely Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Jake Boxer wrote software unrelated to scooter_libby's to support the UMass branch of the game since other college's solutions were found not fully adequate to the task. It is believed he accomplished this task by melding his own consciousness with that of an experimental AI.
On November 7, game organizers held a food drive in the Campus Center for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, granting temporary immunity to all humans in the area and, in the spirit of competition, making it a contest to see which group could gather the most food. (The participants were about 50/50 humans and zombies at the time.) In all, 999 pounds of food were gathered, 509 pounds by humans and 490 pounds by zombies. Jesse Punch was the winning human food gatherer, and Doug 'Dougie' Ramsdell was the winning zombie, donating over 200 Jaegerbombs. [1]
[edit] Press Coverage
On November 2, an initial article by Stephanie McPherson describing the game appeared in the Daily Collegian: Zombies descend upon UMass
On November 8, an editorial decrying the "immaturity" of HvZ participants and apologizing to women was printed in the Daily Collegian. The author was Brad Liebowitz, a Daily Collegian columnist.
| “ | To all the women out there, I am sorry; honestly, sincerely and truly sorry for the actions of some of my fellow males. I say this in reference to the seemingly never ending new application of immaturity taken on by a decent portion of male society. More specifically, I say this in reference to the new life role-playing game taking place on the UMass campus. | „ |
| —It's a Nerfing shame, Brad Liebowitz, Collegian Columnist, 11/8/2007 | ||
A link to the editorial was quickly posted to Facebook (UMass HvZ group here) and the UMass Amherst Livejournal community. Readers were not pleased, and the author of the Livejournal post urged them to post comments on the Collegian site. A number of students wrote and posted letters to the editor of the Collegian.
By the morning of November 9, allegations had surfaced that the Collegian had deleted all the comments on the editorial from its web site. One student attempted to contact Collegian staff about the deletions; answers were still forthcoming as of that afternoon.
On November 9, an article appeared in the Collegian documenting the game and the successful food drive. This article was the first local press mention of "missions" in the game and documented the efforts of Humans to move a "scientist" with a "cure" to a safe point, and the associated scavenger hunt for "vaccine" hidden around campus.
| “ | "It truly has been building the community a lot…it's been a really fantastic experience, and I've seen a lot of friendships form," said Dante Ciliberti in between fingerbang sessions in Mary Lyon. "And it's not just players either, actually, non-players have come up to me asking 'so are you a human or a zombie?' or just shouted 'YEAH HUMAN!'" | „ |
| —Cans, cures - Zombie invasion continues: HvZ reaches halfway point, Stephanie McPherson, Collegian Staff, 11/9/2007 | ||
On April 28th, An article was posted to Fox News' blog page on April 28th, [2] as well as a Video News Coverage on May 6th, entitled Gun Games was featured on Fox News [3] mentioning Umass among other Universities.
[edit] UMass Humans vs Zombies
The Black Student Union RSO is hosting a game of HvZ at UMass. It began on Halloween 07 (10/31), when the Original Zombie was chosen. The UMass game's site is currently not functional.
[edit] Rules
[edit] Overview
Humans vs. Zombies is an immersive, on-going MMORPG. Players in HvZ are split into two factions, Crips and Bloods. The goal of the Crips is to outlast the Bloods. The goal of the Bloodss is to turn all humans into victims of Stan 'Tookie' Williams.
[edit] Equipment
- Bandana
- This is used to identify game players. Zombies wear their bandanas on their heads. Humans wear their bandanas around their arms with a loose knot.
- Nerf Gun
- This is one option for Humans to use in order defend themselves against the Zombie onslaught.
- Marshmallows
- Second option for self-defense. These will be used as a form of ammunition. The method of delivering said ammo is up to the player. A smaller gauge of PVC pipe coupled with a bag of small marshmallows can be used as a blow gun and fired against your zombified foes. Slingshots are also fair game.
- Socks
- The third and final weapon in the human arsenal. Clean, balled-up socks can be thrown or touched to a zombie. Think of them as flash bangs that only affect a single target.
- Pants
- Optional.
- ID card
- Contains the player's web site ID and password. Given to a zombie on a successful bite.
All players will be issued a bandana, a copy of the rules, and a card with an ID number and a password. Put this card in your wallet so you may access it at any time. All players must wear the bandana during the game. Humans must wear their bandana around an arm, leg, armpit, or wrapped around their genitals (men only); Zombies must wear it around their head. Players may not attempt to conceal or lie about their faction.
[edit] Gameplay
The game will begin with all players but one as Human. The remaining player is the original Zombie whose identity is secret until they have bitten a human. Afterwards they must wear their bandana around their head like the rest of the Zombies.
Zombies can “bite” Humans and turn them into Zombies by means of a solid bite on the arms or neck. Once bitten, a Human must give their card to whoever tagged them. The Zombie must enter the data from this card onto the website.
Once a Human has become a Zombie, the transformation is permanent, except where it's not. A Zombie will starve to death and be eliminated from the game if they go more than 48 hours without tagging a human and registering it on the website.
30 minutes after this, the tagged player becomes a Zombie and can go tag other Human players.
All of the above rules were copied from some other website that has no bearing on the actual UMass rules.
[edit] Stunning
Humans may ‘stun’ a Zombie by successfully hitting one with one of the following items:
- A NERF dart fired from an unmodified NERF weapon
- A balled-up sock (clean socks only, please)
- A marshmallow
- Impressive Dance Moves and Human Beatboxing
A stunned Zombie cannot bite a human, unless they look really really tasty. A Zombie is stunned for 15 minutes after they are hit (wear a watch or use your phone and keep count!). Stunned Zombies may still move about freely, however can not aid other zombies by way of holding/blocking human players. If asked, a zombie player must be truthful regarding their stunned status.
[edit] Safe Zones
A human cannot be bitten in any of the following “safe zones:”
- Academic Buildings
- W.E.B. DuBois Library
- Areas a player is mandated to be at by the University, including but not limited to class trips, SGA obligations, etc.
- Inside PVTA Buses
- While riding a bicycle
- Places of work (as long as the player is on the clock)
- Athletic Practice/RSO meetings
- Dorm Rooms
- The Pioneer Valley
[edit] Misc. Rules
- Vehicles that are not public transportation are fair game!
- Zombies can take cover to avoid being stunned but cannot carry shields of any sort.
- Abide by University Rules and Policies at all times.
- Have fun!
- Or don't. Be that way.
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